CLEVELAND — Jason Kipnis, a two-time All-Star second baseman and the heartbeat of the Cleveland Indians, has rarely met a challenge he would not take or a conversation he could not dominate.

Which explains his long-running dialogue with the Indians’ outfielders.

“I tell all my teammates out there I was still the best centre fielder we’ve had the last six years,” Kipnis said. “If they ever dropped a ball out there, I’d make fun of them.”

While Kipnis’ haranguing has been met with eye rolls and reminders that the Indians moved him out of centre field in rookie ball in 2009 for a reason, it is no longer a laughing matter.

When the Indians’ rookie centre fielder, Bradley Zimmer, broke his hand last month, the team moved Kipnis back to centre field and he started there Thursday night in the opener of the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees.

“Now, I have to back it up,” Kipnis said.

He quickly did, making a full-length diving catch of Chase Headley’s drive to left-centre field in the top of the third inning. It was as if he had been playing in centre for years.

The Indians are counting on a quick adjustment in a way that a World Series contender has not since perhaps 1968, when the Detroit Tigers moved centre fielder Mickey Stanley to shortstop just before the start of the Series. The Tigers needed a way to get Hall of Famer Al Kaline’s bat back in the lineup after he returned from a broken arm. Stanley, who replaced the light-hitting Ray Tyler at short, committed two errors but neither led to a run and the Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

After helping the Indians to the brink of a championship last season, Kipnis has had a jagged 2017 campaign, as he went on the disabled list three times with shoulder and hamstring problems.

But he spent the last half of September and the beginning of October trying to regain his hitting stroke and refresh himself with a once-familiar position. In all, Kipnis, who is likely to be replaced in late innings for defence if the Indians are ahead, played 11 games in centre field before the season ended and handled 14 chances without an error.

Is it like riding a bike?

“The bicycle needed some WD-40 and maybe some new tires in the beginning, but right now it’s come back to me,” Kipnis said. “I’m happy with it. I’m starting to feel confident in my legs to go get the ball and really my job is to keep it in front of me, catch what I can and get it in as fast as possible, and I think I’m going to be able to do that.”

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said his team would look to take advantage of Kipnis’ inexperience — and test his arm. But the Indians’ plan is not born completely of desperation: Their 22-game winning streak began just after Kipnis had begun one of his stints on the disabled list, and the All-Star Jose Ramirez shifted from third to second while two young defensive wizards — Giovanny Urshela and Erik Gonzalez — took over at third.

In addition, because Indians pitchers lead the majors in strikeouts and were eighth in ground-ball rate, their outfielders had the third-fewest chances in baseball this season.

So, when Zimmer, a promising rookie, was injured on Sept. 11, manager Terry Francona sounded out Kipnis about the switch.

“We’re in the middle of a 22-game win streak, so who am I to say, ‘No, go back to the way things were?’” Kipnis said.

The enthusiasm that Kipnis has poured into his outfield re-education was present in the softball-size grass stain on his pants after spending two rotations during Wednesday’s practice attacking fly balls. He is also not shy about asking for feedback or advice from his teammates on playing outfield contours.

“His attitude, the way he’s embraced it, was great,” said bench coach Brad Mills, who began working with Kipnis while he was still on the disabled list. “That’s probably the biggest thing because when a guy has the athleticism that he does, you really need to buy in and he did.”

This comes as little surprise to Pat Murphy, Kipnis’ coach at Arizona State.

When Kipnis was booted from Kentucky for violating team rules after his second year, he met with Murphy. “Right away, I said, ‘Do you want to play here or not?’” Murphy, now the Milwaukee Brewers’ bench coach, said in a phone interview. “I don’t care what happened at Kentucky, but you don’t get any more strikes.”

Kipnis also did not get much scholarship money, only enough to cover books.

Murphy, sensing a competitive streak in Kipnis, placed him in a batting-practice group with two future first-round picks — Ike Davis and Brett Wallace. Soon, Kipnis was stinging the ball like they were.

Kipnis, who was undrafted out of high school, was taken in the fourth round by the San Diego Padres after his first season at Arizona State. He thought he should have been a first-round pick, so he returned for his senior year and helped Arizona State to third place in the College World Series.

When his team was playing at Oregon State, Murphy set up an early morning workout for Indians scouts, who had been intently following Kipnis, so they could see him at second base.

Murphy said Kipnis, who had resisted the position switch the previous summer in the Cape Cod League, was not thrilled with the idea. If the Indians wanted him, he told Murphy, they should draft him as a centre fielder – something they did end up doing in the second round.

But the next fall, when the Indians moved him to second base in the instructional league, the idea no longer seemed unpalatable.

“I can be comfortable in centre field in Double A or I can be uncomfortable at second base in the big leagues,” Kipnis said. “I think that’s the way I looked at it and I’d always rather be in the big leagues. They said second base was my fastest ticket up, so I took it.”

Still, though his career blossomed in the infield, the centre fielder in Kipnis never died. And now, as the Indians chase their first title since 1948, Kipnis is back where he once wanted to be, stationed in a place he can roam. And so far, he looks pretty impressive there.

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How did Jason Kipnis end up in centre field for Cleveland? It’s just a return to his roots

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